Commenting on an earlier post, a teacher pointed out that students in his/her district in a low-performing school are allowed to transfer (thanks to No Child Left Behind) to a higher-performing school.
In my district, parents have the right to transfer their child to a “higher performing” school in the district if their local school is “lower performing”. Because my local school is in one of the more affluent areas of town, it usually scores a C, which is one of the higher grades in town. Because it scores higher, parents do transfer their kids, which means it has the largest class sizes in the district. I’d sooner send my kids to a “lower performing” school with smaller class sizes.
Now the higher-performing school is overcrowded and has larger classes. In time, it may well become a low-performing school. But by then, the low-performing school (thanks to Race to the Top) will be closed.
How crazy is that? What happens then? Will everyone go to charter schools? And when they are low-performing, where do they go then? Oh, yes, to those very low-performing cyber charters. In the midst of all this turmoil and upheaval, will anyone get an education? Education. Remember?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A charter school in Rocklin just closed with no notice to parents leaving 400 kids with the option of independent study. A sign of the times. Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:38:34 +0000 To: rke25@hotmail.com
First, I want to publicly thank Diane Ravitch for hosting this blog. I find myself expressing myself on her blog as it is my own. Maybe it is time for me to start one of my own, and maybe when I am done with my graduate studies I will (when I finally have time).
I find myself becoming more and more radical in what I believe to be the function of education. Maybe it’s time again, to write another philosophy of education, as it seems to change every few years.
Because of my present research in graduate studies, I am finding myself more and more at odds with the present scheme to increase standardized test scores. This all started with the NCLB Act. Now we have RttT and ESEA waivers. Whether its proficiency measures or growth measures, the current push in education surrounds testing data.
This is not in the best interest of our kids. Many, if not most, of our kids have no business attempting to go to college. We are lying to them forcing them out of class time and mandating that they take the ACT and PSAT, and etc…
We need schools to get a large proportion of our kids to be skilled in the trades and more functional education. We have completely moved away from that, and it is thanks to the politicians that act as though if a kid is unable to score high on the ACT, SAT, and state-mandated tests, there is something wrong. Many colleges have moved away from using SAT outcomes with such passion, yet K-12 public schools are advancing this agenda now more than ever.
If we would get these kids ready for labor, where many of them excel, we would be doing everybody a favor, including us.
Our country is a melting pot, and there are many social ills that result. I am now seeing public education as a tool to help alleviate those problems.
I used to have little respect for John Dewey, but that respect is now growng.
Our problems stem from politicians running education and people in state and county DOE’s simply ‘yes sir’ and ‘yes mam’ in order to keep their jobs. For the most part teachers are either ignorant of what is going on, or they are more interested in keeping their jobs.
I am getting less and less interested in keeping my job and more and more interested in advocating for our kids. I think more teachers are going to have to face this crossroad.
I think it’s time teachers take a stand and begin to inform parents of their rights and abilities to opt out of testing.
That is the only way our kids will win.
The irony is that computer programmers can be outsourced to India et al… but plumbers and electricians (who require significant skill and training, just training that is not usually done at college) cannot. A really good electrician probably makes more than our school’s principal.
I am also in a graduate program, and I find myself thinking similar thoughts. As I have seen in some classes, and in combination with my reading of The Death and Life of the Great American School System, education policy seems to be cyclical. For example, at the rate we are going, NYC education will no longer be controlled by the mayor’s office, we’ll wait a few years, then the mayor’s office will get it back again. We probably do need more trade schools as well. I’m only aware of one trade school because my high school used to share sports teams with one.
Honestly, seeing what is going on with education makes me want to go into the administration aspect of it and try to change something. I just don’t know where to start, or if I’ll even get that opportunity. I see a generation of students that are going to be disadvantaged by everything going on. It is a vicious cycle, and it has to be broken. But how? And who will be able to do it?
Agreed!
You classify it as an “absurdity”, which it is, but I’d argue it’s an intention. The point is to destroy public education, not just the “failing” schools. If we can herd the poor, unmotivated, learning disabled, etc. kids around the school system, then eventually all schools (with the exception of a handful in elite gated or might-as-well-be-gated communities) will fail and need “turnaround”.
I wholeheartedly agree. The NCLB Act was aimed at schools. The RttT initiative is aimed at teachers.
Either way, kids lose.
NCLB also targeted teachers and administrators.
My apologies if this is too far off topic for this post, but I just received an email from our Teacher Association President regarding RttT for our school district.
Here is part of that letter;
“Dear Colleagues,
Tonight, we will ask the Board of Education to withdraw from Race To The Top. This is long overdue. We seek increased flexibility to negotiate what part standardized testing will play in educator evaluation.
Our position is simple: teachers do not and cannot control test results. If standardized tests provide anything of value, and I would argue they do not, they give us a snapshot of student performance on a single day. They are not objective measures of teacher effectiveness any more than they are objective measures of administrator competence, parent involvement, or the nutritional quality of the cafeteria food.
As you know, we have diligently worked with the central office on a new teacher evaluation system. Our work was in good faith, and we will remain in support of what we created. The collaboration from the school system was very real; we cannot recall another instance when the school system sent a plan to the state department of education with the knowledge that it would be rejected. In other words, our school system chose to stand firmly with the Teacher Association against the State Department of Education. This isn’t easy to do, and it is a watershed moment.”
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I want to believe that substantial changes are right around the corner in my district and perhaps the country. Diane, I think that your blog had a part in this. Our Teacher Association posted a link to your blog this past summer on their website. I’ll let you know how the Board votes. It will be interesting, since three Board spots are open in the November election.
This can actually work if done correctly. My daughter attends a high performing, integrated public Title I school. About two years ago the school absorbed about 100 students from schools on probationary status. That was an increase of almost 20 percent. The district moved quickly, forming new classes at our school. Class size was not affected.
Some of the staff voiced trepidation – they encountered discipline problems they were unaccustomed to dealing with. I was of the opinion that if 100 children had a better shot at a good future, it was worth some work and adjustment. We never considered moving our daughter.
Two years later, you wouldn’t know that this event occurred. It is still a successful school. And there is no doubt that some children have an improved situation.
Charter schools aren’t some holy grail solution to how to learn and how to teach. They merely take the focus away from the real problems, while even highlighting the bigger problems. Parents taking their kids out of “failing” schools, failing as defined by test scores of course. I’d prefer a small class to getting higher test scores any day. But unfortunately the culture of testing over learning. In my school kids ask questions not about the material we learn, but instead what material will be on the test. Its the environment we are in that causes these attitudes. The environment of test results over honest and intriguing discovery. http://justinstrudler.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/math/